A little bit of this, a little bit of that: mostly about life in general, about my family, and things worth sharing with others.

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Friday, August 17, 2007

Benefits of Gymming

I joined the gym at Saifee Hospital on the 5th of April this year. Weighing in at 85.5 kg. on the electronic scale at the gym, I looked not unlike a porcine human being. At that point of time, I was, in a word, medically UNFIT. I could barely climb one flight of stairs with comfort, and by the time the second flight of stairs was climbed, I would have breathing difficulty, a painful pull on my knees, and at times, a frightening cold sweat on both my hands and forearms.

On the first day of my joining, the instructor, a friendly chap by the name of Rahul Hardikar, led me into the cardio gym and made me go through the paces on a MATRIX treadmill. In 20 minutes, at a speed of 3.0 kmph, I had covered a bare 0.81 km, and I was out of breath. On the second day, it was almost the same. After the gym, I went down to the canteen, where, with a cup of tea in my hand, and tens of othjer customers bustling about with their orders, I passed out, sitting. I woke up almost 45 minutes later, the tea still miraculously unspilt. Other customers were mostly ignoring me, but a few did seem to be staring at me!

A month down the line, things had changed for the better. I had downloaded and read most of the book "Body for Life" by Bill Philips. I was working out much better and felt that the time had come for me to jump onto newer things. I was about 2 kg lighter than when I had started, and felt more energetic and fresh.

Before I started my gymming, I suffered from a horrible form of snoring called "Obstructive Sleep Apnoea". This causes a blockage of the inhalation of a breath, leading to loud snoring, fits of stopped breathing, and gasps of inhalation that are reminiscent of the final gasps of a dying person. In daytime, OSA causes fatigue, sleepiness, and fits of on-work dozing.

I used to actually fall asleep while writing a prescription for a patient! At times, I would wake up with a start, and make sheepish excuses about a heavy "emergency night", but at times, I would be acutely embarrassed as my handwriting would spill out of the prescription paper, or change into an undecipherable squiggle that ran across the page from its original location to either below or above it.

Being a diabetic person and being overweight is a curse doubled! My obese persona was a damper for patients too, who saw in me an unhealthy doctor, a sure negative advertisement if any! On the top of that, there were other medical problems too: I had acidity, belching and episodes of socially unacceptable "gas-passing", a problem with conversing that was caused by breathlessness caused by obesity, and some more stuff that I don't wish to make public right now.

I needed that gym more than I could guess. It literally was a life saver for me.

Having completed four months of it, I have lost more than 10 kg and weigh about 76 kg, as on today, 17th August. More later about those three months that transpired, and the dieting that accompanied the gymming effort.

2 comments:

Your article about your experiences working out are worth preserving and publicising. I am sure you will have many friends, acquaintances and patients who would love to read this and get encouragement from it.

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About Me

I have been exploring the e-age since more than 2 decades. I enjoy my time on the PC. I am always doing something or the other - almost three to five hours a day. I am a Professional person, a doctor, a Pediatrician. I am married and have two daughters. Currently, I live in the U.K. and am working as a Paediatric Trust Grade doctor with the Blackpool Victoria Hospital. This is a job with the NHS.